Key
events, or keyframes, are the structural anchor points that hold together the
animated sequence. Key events are the "and then this happened" points of the
animation story. They are like telephone poles, between which are suspended
the wires of animated transitions as something changes from one condition to
another. You will use key events to set up your animation and tell the story.

When it comes to setting up keyframes, the intent is this: Set a starting
time and condition. Generate a key event for that time and condition. Move to
a later time and change the condition; then generate a key event for that second
time and condition. Move to a yet later time, change the condition, and generate
a key event for that third time and condition. Keep doing this until all the
key events are generated for all the different conditions that exist in the
sequence.

Bryce has two strategies for generating key events. Auto-Key is the automatic
strategy, where Bryce "watches" for all the changes in the objects over the
duration of the sequence and generates key events for every change that takes
place. In the manual option (Auto-Key off), you manually set the key events
for different changes in objects over time. We'll discuss these both in depth.